From the narratives of folklore and the beginnings of modern horror in literature and film to contemporary artistic forms, the horror genre presents the potential to address human and societal fears. With the exhibition "Eyes in the Rock," we empower the primal emotion of fear to awaken us from our numbness to the warnings of science, which seem to have failed. The featured artists respond to the ominous atmosphere around us through form and narrative.

New Venue of the ECO Triennial – Dr. Mirko Černič's Old Sanatorium in the Center of Maribor – has been filled with artistic projects that, through shock, discomfort, threat, a sense of hopelessness, as well as critical examination, offer an opportunity for catharsis in confronting the environmental crisis. The old sanatorium, a modernist villa surrounded by a garden, becomes a metaphor for home.

If we imagine the Earth as our home, then this is the house haunted by spirits.

Extreme weather events, mass extinctions, fires and floods, earthquakes: it seems as if the planet is seeking revenge on its inhabitants. Since we cannot move out of this house and exorcism is not an option, we must learn to live with these restless spirits. We enter this mansion of fears, this planet of horror, to better understand and come to terms with the spirits awakened by our presence on Earth.

Eyes in the Rock accompany me, pursue me. Do they protect me? Condemn me? Remain silent? What does the girl in the rock think? What did she see? What did she see that turned her to stone? What did she have to do to become petrified? On the northern slopes of Prisank in the Julian Alps, nature carved the image of a girl's face into the rock. The Ajdovska girl, trapped in stone, has observed events around her for millennia.

Folklore has attributed various meanings to the natural formation, the stone face, and the eyes in the rock, over centuries. One story tells of a fortune-teller who predicted to a newborn that he would become a hunter, kill the Goldenhorn, and become rich with the mythical creature's horns. The fortune-teller's sisters punished her for this prophecy, condemning her to be trapped in stone forever.

At the 9th edition of the EKO Triennial of Art and Environment, art and the audience are reflected in the Ajdovska Girl. Her gaze, her persistent observation under scrutiny, places our actions in her realm, in the kingdom of the Goldenhorn. Simultaneously, we can recognize ourselves in her curse.

Despite numerous warnings, like being trapped in stone, we helplessly observe the consequences of human interference in nature. The immovable, stone presence of the Ajdovska Girl amidst an environmental catastrophe creates an ominous atmosphere, attributing a new, sinister meaning to her millennia-old gaze.

Saša Bezjak, Lan Breški, Ana Čavić, Ines Doujak, Herman Gvardjančič, Andrea Éva Győri, Thomas Hörl & Peter Kozek, Kier-La Janisse, Vid Koprivšek, Nina Koželj, Gašper Kunšič, Ana Likar, Eva-Maria Lopez, David Nez, Ludvik Pandur, Mila Panić, Edith Payer, Ana Pečar, Oton Polak, Janko Ravnik, Līga Spunde & Aleksandrs Breže, Dominika Trapp, Ádám Ulbert, Matjaž Wenzel in drugi umetniški vodja: Jure Kirbiš umetniška svetovalca: Dominika Trapp in Markus Waitschacher.

Join us at 19 Tyrševa Street, from May 17 to July 28, 2024. Don't miss this unique artistic experience!